The Shutdown: Just Another Show That Pragmatism Will Never Work

In 2013 on the eve of implementation of Obamacare Republican Ted Cruz initiated a filibuster to shut down the government. The theory being that by using the shutdown as leverage Obamacare would not be implemented. Naturally, the Democrats met this action with fierce resistance. They lambasted the unwillingness of Republicans to compromise and they raised can about how damaging a government shut down can be. No one thought to ask them “Would Democrats support a shutdown?” But if they had I wager the answer, if you could get a straight one from a politician, would be no.

Fast forward to a week ago, Republicans, lacking enough senators to surpass the 60 Senator limit to pass the continuing resolution to prevent a shutdown, appealed to the Democrats. As we all know the government shut down. Democrats did this as a way to force a vote on DACA, the executive order issued by Barack Obama granting temporary protection to illegal immigrants brought to America as children. Republicans, trying to force a vote, made it clear that if the CR was not passed needy children would not receive healthcare. Politics is a dirty game but that does not mean that the hypocrisy of both sides should not be exposed and criticized.

This recent debacle (a shutdown is truly a debacle) is but a microcosm representing a broader ideological problem, that can be analyzed through the following question: what separates the Democrats from the Republicans? Using the analogy of a coin, it is nothing but a thin strip of metal. The Democrats and Republicans are two sides of the same ideological coin. And like a coin they cannot exist without the other. The broader globalist system, supported by both parties, as made evident by bipartisan agreements on things such as The War on Terror, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and both sides willingness to engage in a government shutdown highlights this. It is wholly laughable to argue that there are distinct differences between the two parties. And if there are differences, they are surely outweighed by both parties’ desire to maintain hegemonic power in the American political sphere.

What is to be done about this broken and fool-hearty system? From my estimation, support the President. Now for die-hard Trump supporters, there is nothing else to say. President Trump, for all his faults, is certainly not a member of this political establishment. The radical nature of his election can be regarded as a point of condensation. A rally around the radical mysticism of his election. This type of energy, the infectious energy that spread across the country that “Made America Great Again”, can be harnessed for a broader ideological goal that fosters change. Essentially Trump’s energy can be used for goals either Trumpian or not.

The most important thing to be said here is that one must abandon the cult of pragmatism. The cult that insured Hillary Clinton would win, with all the data, and polls, and mainstream media assurances. Trump has laid a blueprint to attack and dismantle the vast ideological machine that is bleeding us all to death.